Transylvania school officials approve interim budget

By Nancy TankerTimes-News Staff Writer

Published: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 3:56 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 3:56 p.m.

Transylvania County Public Schools officials approved the district's interim budget Monday, presented each June to allow the school system to pay salaries and operating expenses until the adoption of the final budget for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.

On May 30, the Board of Commissioners voted to accept the county manager's recommendation to fund the school system just shy of $10 million in local current expense, which is an increase of just over a half-million dollars over last year.

Commissioners also agreed to give the school system $1.6 million for its capital outlay budget, which is a decrease of $200,000 from the requested $1.8 million.

Facing the threat of state budget cuts to education, the school system's Director of Business Services Norris Barger reassured the school board that proposed state cuts to teacher assistants could be effectively counterbalanced by "discretionary reduction" in other areas.

"We've got some areas we can pull from to save those positions," Barger added.

Brevard High stadium lights

Also at Monday's meeting, the school board approved a resolution authorizing Barger to accept additional bids to replace the lighting system at Brevard Memorial High School Stadium. He currently has one bid, but expects to entertain at least one or two more by the end of July.

The current lighting system is "not up to code," Barger said, and has been experiencing outages related to bad wiring.

Replacing the lighting system — at a cost of roughly $167,000 financed lease-to-purchase over five years, with a 25-year guarantee for the entire system, according to the one bid received so far — is a "safety issue," Barger said, adding that addressing only the wiring issues easily could add up to $100,000, making replacing the entire system and paying for it over a five-year period "a no-brainer."

The new system would include new lights, wiring, poles and breakers as well as adding web-based computerized control system.

Several board members expressed reservations about spending that amount when teacher assistants' jobs were under pressure, but were persuaded by the fact that the current system was not up to code, was therefore unsafe, and needed continual maintenance that was costing the county money each year.

Additional capital needs in the budget included installing access-control systems in every school in the county, completing roof repairs at Brevard and Rosman high schools, creating a kindergarten classroom addition at Pisgah Forest Elementary and repairing or replacing the HVAC systems at several schools.

<p>Transylvania County Public Schools officials approved the district's interim budget Monday, presented each June to allow the school system to pay salaries and operating expenses until the adoption of the final budget for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. </p><p>On May 30, the Board of Commissioners voted to accept the county manager's recommendation to fund the school system just shy of $10 million in local current expense, which is an increase of just over a half-million dollars over last year.</p><p>Commissioners also agreed to give the school system $1.6 million for its capital outlay budget, which is a decrease of $200,000 from the requested $1.8 million. </p><p>Facing the threat of state budget cuts to education, the school system's Director of Business Services Norris Barger reassured the school board that proposed state cuts to teacher assistants could be effectively counterbalanced by "discretionary reduction" in other areas.</p><p>"We've got some areas we can pull from to save those positions," Barger added. </p><p><b>Brevard High stadium lights</b></p><p>Also at Monday's meeting, the school board approved a resolution authorizing Barger to accept additional bids to replace the lighting system at Brevard Memorial High School Stadium. He currently has one bid, but expects to entertain at least one or two more by the end of July.</p><p>The current lighting system is "not up to code," Barger said, and has been experiencing outages related to bad wiring. </p><p>Replacing the lighting system — at a cost of roughly $167,000 financed lease-to-purchase over five years, with a 25-year guarantee for the entire system, according to the one bid received so far — is a "safety issue," Barger said, adding that addressing only the wiring issues easily could add up to $100,000, making replacing the entire system and paying for it over a five-year period "a no-brainer." </p><p>The new system would include new lights, wiring, poles and breakers as well as adding web-based computerized control system. </p><p>Several board members expressed reservations about spending that amount when teacher assistants' jobs were under pressure, but were persuaded by the fact that the current system was not up to code, was therefore unsafe, and needed continual maintenance that was costing the county money each year. </p><p>Additional capital needs in the budget included installing access-control systems in every school in the county, completing roof repairs at Brevard and Rosman high schools, creating a kindergarten classroom addition at Pisgah Forest Elementary and repairing or replacing the HVAC systems at several schools.</p>